Thiruvananthapuram | BJP leader V Muraleedharan on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "better things to do" than strike any deal with the Congress to target the CPI(M), which he said has limited national presence.
Muraleedharan, the MLA from the Kazhakootam Assembly constituency and a former Union Minister of State, made the remark while rejecting CPI(M) claims that Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's residences were a "joint BJP-Congress operation." He also questioned why Vijayan should be worried about the ED raids at his residences if he has done no wrong.
He termed the Left party's claims that Modi was trying to end it a "huge joke." "You think Narendra Modi has nothing better to do but make deals with the Congress to end a party that has a presence in Kerala and maybe won one seat in West Bengal? It's a huge joke to say that Modi is trying to end the CPI(M)," he contended.
Muraleedharan said he had read news reports stating that the Kerala High Court did not allow a plea opposing the ED probe, thereby paving the way for the agency to continue its investigation.
"Let the law take its own course," he added.
A total of 10 premises in Kerala, including the rented house of the 81-year-old former CM in the state capital, a location in Kannur, and the residences of key persons of CMRL, a private entity, are being raided by the ED as part of its investigation against his daughter, Veena T, in the CMRL money laundering case.
The action was taken a day after the Kerala High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by CMRL seeking to quash the ED proceedings, thereby allowing the central agency to continue its probe.
The ED probe stems from a complaint filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, an investigative arm of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
The SFIO probe followed the interim board for settlement of the Income Tax Department, questioning the legitimacy of certain transactions undertaken by CMRL with Veena's now-defunct firm.
According to the ED's case, registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2024, CMRL allegedly made an illegal payment of Rs 1.72 crore to Veena's company, Exalogic Solutions, between 2017 and 2020, even though the IT firm had not provided any services to the company.
Muraleedharan claimed that the Kerala government and Veena had been trying to stop the probe in the ED and SFIO cases by filing petitions in the Kerala, Karnataka, and Delhi High Courts.
He also claimed that the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) has spent around Rs 2 crore from the public exchequer in connection with the litigation.
"All these would create suspicions that there is something wrong," he contended.
